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May 17, 2013

FACEBOOK SCAMS–STOP THE INSANITY

For some reason people start up scams to create fear, false hope and misinformation amongst the users of Facebook and other sites or emails.

It is time for us to become vigilant about stopping what we can. How do we do this?

STOP POSTING WARNINGS WITHOUT CHECKING THEM YOURSELF FIRST PEOPLE!!!!

NO EXCUSES! DON'T BE LAZY. DON’T BELIEVE A POST THAT SAYS IT IS TRUE AND HAS BEEN CHECKED OUT ALREADY ON SNOPES…CHECK IT YOURSELF!!!!

CALL OUT YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK WHEN THEY POST THESE THINGS AND TELL THEM TO STOP IT.

There are many sites that will tell you the truth about these scams.

The missing child scam. Who wouldn't want this broadcast when a little one is missing but if you didn't see it on your own newscast or in your newspaper DON'T POST IT. Don't give me the line that if it were your child wouldn't you want it spread. Of course I would but if we keep posting the phony ones that have gone around for years with a picture of a young girl who was never, ever missing in the first place, it takes away the seriousness of real missing kids.

A dollar will be given to help an infant who has had open heart surgery every time you click “like”. This one is complete with a graphic photo of someone’s baby in the hospital with tubes and bandages and a gaping hole in their chest. This is sickening. Don’t be a moron. Why would a person only donate if you click a button. If someone was going to give the money it would have nothing to do with Facebook.

The child dying of cancer who will get the help they need if only the Facebook post gets enough people to share the post or click the "like" button. Do you think the medical profession would give better care to someone if there are enough clicks?

Bill Gates will give away money if you share the fake photo of him holding a sign. Really? He may give away lots of money but he is not such an idiot that he would be randomly giving it to people on Facebook. It is photo-shopped and he is not holding that sign.

You will get money and good luck if you share the post. I am sure the gods, karma, voodoo and all others sit there at their computers and dole out the good juju according to who has shared their picture. How did people ever have good luck before Facebook?

Now lets move on to the actual scams regarding Facebook security and such. I do understand that there are many issues on Facebook privacy but that is pretty much due to the fact that people post things they really should keep to themselves and also that they don’t bother to set their own privacy settings correctly.

When they tell you to hover your mouse over the little arrow and change your settings all you are doing is blocking what you see not what the world sees. If people do this for your name your friends will no longer see your posts….at all…why be on Facebook then.

When it tells you to do things to change the colors in Facebook all it changes is what you see not what others see.

When it tells you that your photos are going to be shown around the world if people don’t change their settings on your posts that is not right. People will see your photos if you are tagged in them. Change your own settings to stop tagging. If your friend does it on your post it just means you won’t see what they are posting about you.

See who views your Facebook profile. Get over yourself. George Clooney is not checking you out and even if he was it would not show up on this scam. It isn’t for real.

So here is what you are going to do. Take the pledge. Take my Facebook Pledge to not share any warnings and fear mongering on Facebook or through emails without first checking it out on one or even two of the scam reporting sites out there. You don’t have to post this on Facebook but you can if you like. Just take the pledge. Feel free to copy and paste this and share it freely. It is not a scam.

Here is a list of sites you can use to check out if something is for real or not. Just copy some of the key words from whatever you want to check out and paste it into the search areas in these sites. Please read the reports and use better judgement before posting these things. Here are 3 sites to get you started…. or better yet to get you “stopped”.

8 comments:

Good post, Laurie. I never click on anything about weight loss or health, since those all bring me advertising that I can't seem to get rid of. I am Pro-Life, and clicked on an anti-abortion post, now I get all kinds of gross anti-abortion literature--which I believe is counterproductive to the cause-- that I'm not interested in since my beliefs are already in place.

Amen! It's so annoying! That and the "Can you name a ____ that doesn't contain the letter _____" thing. Really? They're just collecting your cookies so they can target you for ads. It is not a sign of your intellect! Sheesh! (I obviously have issues with FB things too.) My hubby left it altogether and, quite frankly, if it wasn't that it's how I see photos of the babies and nieces and nephews in the family I'd go too.OK, rant over. Have a lovely weekend!Robin

Excellent post. I too found myself a victim of a FB scam and I am not easily scammed. They said I could get free advertising for so many days and guess what....wasn't free. I even had to make the trip to my bank to finally put a stop payment on this problem, they kept going into my account and taking $10 here and there...not much, but too much for me. Tried to call FB, but that mission was totally impossible. These days I only click into the links I know. You can fool me once, but never twice! Diane